Frog on a leaf

April 2008

Amusing and quaint at the same time is this clay tobacco pipe from the Gambier company. It is one of the few designs from that factory that displays an Art Nouveau style wich is surprising. The modern styles we usually do not find in clay pipes, that were mainly intended for the simple, more bourgeois smoker. With this design, however, Gambier has gone beyond all limits and achieved a figuration that was unparalleled. A pipe only suitable for a flamboyant smoker who has the right flair to amaze his circles with an extreme smoking pipe. The stem of this pipe is an elongated leaf, the pipe bowl is formed by snail that is carried on the back of a frog sitting in the middle of that leaf. It is not the details that make the pipe, but the fuzzy manner in which the figures are modeled. The factory brand also fits in. sharp stamps with the factory name and place of origin on the stem as usually done, would stand out against the over-all design. So, only very subtly the word Gambier is printed in writing on the underside of the leaf. As systematic as the factory was organized, a shape number was included on the stem to facilitate ordering.

Amsterdam Pipe Museum APM 19.135

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